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Here on the farm we are not only attuned to the seasons: we live according to them.  The season just past has been one of rest and renewal.  As much as I’m not fond of winter weather, I adore the time it gives me with my husband, and he with our girls.  I’m already dreading the summer months when he’ll be so busy every daylight hour, and trying to figure out how I can do more of his chores here around the house so that every spare moment he has can be spent with the girls and me.

The winter gave us mornings of sleeping in (when the girls let us!), followed by my husband invariably making us a delicious warm breakfast.  The coming summer will mean him getting up around six each morning and racing out the door to move irrigation pipe, coming back for breakfast whenever that gets done (and one never knows, of a morning, how changing water will go!).  Then it’s racing off to work, racing back home for a quick bite of lunch, squeezing dinner in between work and an evening water change, and of course, some all-nighters cutting and baling hay.

So here we are at spring.  The transition between the deliciousness of winter togetherness and the busyness of summer craziness.  For me, our last trip to visit my family each spring marks the end of winter’s rest, the coming of spring.  We usually arrive home with spring cold bugs just in time for spring planting.  (This year is no exception—however, I’m determined not to be sick the entire spring like we were last year!)

It was timely that I was reading the Harris twins’ new book Start Here: Doing Hard Things Right Where You Are on the drive to my parents’.  The words on priorities and hard work were just the thing I needed to hear, as spring approaches.  (I’m reviewing the book on ylcf.org today—head over there to win a copy!)

When we really think something is important, we’ll make sure to give it our time as soon as we have a free moment—and we’ll carve out those free moments if they don’t come naturally.  That’s how it should be with our personal time with God.

–Alex & Brett Harris, Start Here, pg. 73

I know this year will look different than last, with two little people instead of one.  Not only do I need to make sure to catch those moments with a cup of tea and an open Bible, but I need to be sharing the truths about our great God with my 2-year-old who is drinking in everything she hears.  Not only do I need to stay on top of the household tasks and keep my hubby well fed, I need to be training my daughter to be my best little helper.  Not only do I need to be feeding my near-7-month-old solid foods and encouraging her to learn new skills, but I need to be pointing out letters and shapes and colors to my 2-year-old and explaining each item of wonder and amazement to her.

So I’m prioritizing once again.  Heeding the words of Proverbs 18:9 about she who is slack in her work, while claiming the promise of verse 10 about the tower of my Lord’s strength that I can and must run to each and every day.

What do your priorities look like this spring?

Keep in mind that the choice is never between doing hard things and our relationship with God, because God is the One who commands us to do hard things!  Instead, we serve and obey God by doing hard things—with Christ as the center, His glory our goal, and holding every hard thing we do with open hands.

–Alex & Brett Harris, Start Here, pg. 74